No violation of guidelines under Solar Mission: Govt

According to reports, there has been no violation of policy guidelines for implementation of schemes under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the Government today informed Rajya Sabha.

“There is no loss to the Government whatsoever,” Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said during the Question Hour.

He was replying to Supplementaries during which some members wanted to know his response on the alleged scam of Rs 13,000 crore by a private company Lanco Infratech.

The Minister said a committee was set up to look into the issue and no violation of guidelines was found.

Abdullah said the committee consisting of three Joint Secretaries was set up well before the media reports in this regard appeared.

He said if any irregularity is proven and it warrants cancellation of award contracts to private firms, “such an action can be taken by the appropriate authority as Government of India does not award any contract directly”.

The Minister also said there have been significant achievements during the first phase (January 2010 — March 2013) of the JNNSM and several projects under various programmes have been completed.

Grid connected projects of 1047.16 MW have already been commissioned, he said.

As much as 99 per cent of the total solar power generation in the country is by the private sector.

The minister said there are plans to install solar or wind power units on telecom towers to check use of diesel.

Abdullah said a lot of research is going on in the field of solar energy and expressed confidence that India will emerge a leading player in the sector.